Connecting in Community
Duncan Robins just offered a good post...
He is coming out with a new book on organizational wealth and the nature of value that i think will be of interest to many of us (Duncan, when it comes out, let us know--we can do an on line discussion of it!)...
but he also raises the question of how best to connect with others interested in organizations, investing and value...which is much harder to do than one might imagine...
Duncan's perspective is based out of rural Northern California and mine from rural Colorado, but i think regardless of where we live (rural, urban, on the road...) many of us are confronting the same challenge...
I came here, to Grand Lake, in large part to seek community--a sense of community i have found, but one that only meets part of my needs and interests. I love being here and hanging out with my local friends. And I have loved being a part of Search and Rescue, and doing things for my local community as well...
But when it comes to building a better network of friends, colleagues and compatriots with whom i connect the world over, that is, indeed, much tougher--despite all the who-ha about technology's ability to connect us and create virtual communities.
Part of the issue is simply one of time--time to talk, email, finding opportunities when we are in the same place to spend one on one time again--and the other is diffusiion, by which i mean that there was perhaps a time when we worked in a field of interest (law, medicine, social work) and that came with a set of organizations we were a part of and primary actors with whom we connected, networked and mentored...
But today it seems that with so many of us cutting across boundaries, we are building our own value networks of friends and colleagues across professional disciplines, organiizational forms and geographic limits like never before.
On the one hand, this is great since you can almost feel how we are each being pulled along, into something so much bigger and greater than what we have had before...
And on the other hand, it is not so great since for every new person i meet i can think of three i should call...
I am now taking the next month to stay home...and will take it as an opportunity to call and connect with some of the many i have simply missed over these past months of too much travel and some great sessions...
But I'm curious:
Where are the best places for us all to connect? What are the best conferences, on line fora and related ways we can find each other more effectively?
What do you think???
Happy trails!!
jed
We need to continue building our community of actors...
both professionally and personally...
if we are to really change the world.
But doing so remains a challenge...